'Freedom Ride' bus tour through rural NSW

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Inspired by the Freedom Rides of the American civil rights movement, a group of Sydney University students led by Charlie Perkins and Jim Spigelman set out on their own Freedom Ride: a bus tour around the racist backblocks of rural New South Wales. The Ride included a survey of Aboriginal living conditions, a direct challenge to a ban against Aboriginal ex-servicemen at Walgett RSL, and a demonstration against local laws barring Aboriginal children from the Moree swimming pool. Perkins and his group ensured their protests were covered by the media, bringing the issue of racial discrimination to national and international press attention, and stirring public debate about the disadvantage and prejudice facing Indigenous people across Australia.

Amongst the Freedom Riders was Darce Cassidy, an arts student who was also a part-time reporter for the ABC. His vivid recordings of the 1965 Freedom Ride weren't broadcast until 1978. In this excerpt, we're taken right to the centre of the confrontation at the Moree swimming pool. Tempers run high in this encounter, which reveals the extent of racial segregation that prevailed in country towns at the time. Evident also is the intense cultural difference between the university students from the city and some of the locals whose attitudes and customs were under fire. The hostility reaches dangerous levels when the students return to the town centre later that night. As an antidote to the ugly scenes captured in the recording, listen out for the little bit of Sydney's Maroubra beach which has beaten the university students to Moree.

Image Source: Charles Perkins going home on the bus from Sydney University (1964), copyright Robert McFarlane